("VORWARTS" 1877)

[143-147] Priests and professors agree in denying the absolute cognitive capacity of the human intellect, the possibility of achieving unconditional clarity, and preserve for it only the character of a limited, servile Understanding...

Professional philosophers have taken a step forward and replaced heavenly science with earthly science; but here they ultimately occupy the same ambiguous position as the "progressivists" in politics. The same mixture of mediocrity and malicious will that holds the latter back from freedom holds professors back from wisdom. They do not wish to renounce the pursuit of the mysterious; if not in the heavens, not in holy gifts, then at least in nature there must be something mystical, incomprehensible—in the "essence of things" and in the "ultimate foundations" there must be absolute limits or "boundaries of our knowledge of nature." It falls to social-democracy to step forward against such incorrigible mystics in defense of the radical unlimitedness of the human intellect.

Of course, there is much that remains unconceived—who would dispute this?..

The capacity of the human intellect is so unlimited that with the passage of time it makes ever new discoveries, in the light of which all past learning invariably seems to be nothing but sheer ignorance.

And although I thus defend the absolute giftedness of our cognitive capacity, I am nevertheless filled with the consciousness of the limitedness of all people and all times and, consequently, despite all my presumptuous tone, I am, in essence, a completely modest man...

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